Love and sacrifice in A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

Charles Darnay-Lucie Manette relation:

Charles Darnay and Lucie Manette are two important characters in this novel. They are husband and wife. In this novel, we can see that they love each other very much. Darnay belongs to an aristocratic family in France, and he knows that Lucie is an ordinary girl. Despite this fact, he loves Lucie dearly. Both Lucie and Darnay are faithful to each other. When Darnay was imprisoned in France, Lucie went to France with her young daughter to save her husband’s life. She did not even think about her safety.

Selfless Love:

Sydney Carton represents selfless love. Though he knows that Lucie loves someone else, and in the religious context, it is not ethical, he is deeply in love with her. Throughout the novel, we find him not to be a good person like Darnay. Even he has all these bad habits. However, he is so deeply in love with Lucie that he is ready to sacrifice his life for her or anyone dear to her just to keep her happy. At the end of the novel, he fulfills his promise, which is why he is called the sacrificing hero.

Sacrifice:

Sacrifice is the most important theme of this novel. From the beginning to the end, we encounter many examples of sacrifice. Most of the characters in this novel make sacrifices. Dr. Manette is first seen sacrificing his life, imprisoned for eighteen years in the Bastille without any reason. Because of his long imprisonment, he becomes mentally ill. Throughout his life, he curses the family for whom he was imprisoned. On the morning of his daughter’s marriage, he learns of Charles Darnay’s true identity and is shocked. However, he agrees to the marriage, thinking of his daughter’s happiness.

Sydney Carton is the quintessential example of the theme of sacrifice. He sacrifices his life to ensure Lucie’s happiness. Through this ultimate sacrifice, he saves Lucie, Charles, and their family. By fulfilling his promise to sacrifice his life for the one Lucie loves, he demonstrates profound selflessness and devotion.

Charles Darnay also makes sacrifices, relinquishing his family, property, and various other privileges to lead a life free of guilt associated with the actions of his ancestors. He chooses to leave his homeland, France, in pursuit of a simpler existence. His decision reflects a commitment to distancing himself from the injustices perpetuated by his family’s past behavior.

The French Revolution plays a crucial role in this novel. It was a conflict between the aristocratic and peasant classes, with the lower class fighting for their rights and liberation from the oppression of the upper class. Throughout the revolution, ordinary French citizens sacrificed their lives in pursuit of freedom from tyranny and inequality. 

Love, money and marriage in Sense and Sensibility

Sense and Sensibility is one of the most important novels of Jane Austen, and in this novel, love, money and marriage came up many times. This novel basically tells the story of two sisters, Elinor and Marianne. These two sisters liked each other very much and had a very good relationship, but their characters were totally opposite of each other. However, they fall in love. In love, failure comes first, and then they get married. The financial issues are presented against this backdrop giving the readers a glimpse of contemporary society. Simultaneously, Jane Austen described the women's condition. In that era, love, money and marriage were important for girls, and these were also equally important to men. 

If we want to talk about love, money and marriage in this novel, we should look at the social system of that time. In those days, women did not have any right to inheritance, for which they had to depend on their brothers or other male relatives in case of having no immediate brother. It was the reality of the society of that time, and Jane Austen in almost all her novels has portrayed this reality. In Pride and Prejudice, we can also see the same kind of reality where the women remained under mental stress for not getting any share in the property. In Sense and Sensibility, we can see that Elinor and Marianne became dependent on their brother after the death of their father, and their brother, being influenced by his wife, did not give them any share in the property although he promised on his father’s death bed to look after his sisters. The novel depicts the painful condition of women in 19th-century English society. Although many readers might think that it is a romantic novel, Jane Austen showed the ugly reality of society and the financial worries and problems of women. 

The relationship between Elinor Dashwood and Edward Ferrars, considering from the perspective of love, was good. However, the misfortune of the two is that Edward Ferrars several years ago promised a girl named Lucie Steele that he would marry her, and on the other hand, Edward Ferrars’ mother is a very domineering woman. So, Elinor and Edward split up, and later, fortunately, they met again and got married in the end. On the other hand, Marianne Dashwood first fell in love with John Willoughby, but John Willoughby was a cheater. At the same time, Colonel Brandon fell in love with Marianne Dashwood, but Marianne Dashwood did not like him. Eventually, Marianne Dashwood realizes that men like John Willoughby can be very attractive as lovers, but they are not worthy of being husbands. On the other hand, men like Colonel Brandon may not be ideal as lovers, but they are not bad as husbands. 

The issue of money repeatedly appears throughout the novel several times because Jane Austen tried to show that falling in love is easy. Elinor and Edward like each other. Willoughby also spends a very wonderful time with Marianne, but the reality of money changes everything. When Edward tries to keep his promise to Lucy Steele and decides to marry her, his mother deprives him of property and gives it to his brother. As a result, Edward suddenly finds himself in deep financial trouble. Seeing this condition, Lucy also leaves him, and here we can realize the importance of money at that time. The same can be said about Marianne and Willoughby. It is not that Willoughby did not like Marianne. He liked and would have proposed Marianne had the financial issue not come up. Had Willoughby married Marianne, he would not have gotten anything. Hence, he marries a woman who brings a huge amount of property for him. 

In this novel, we repeatedly see that both men and women who got married thought seriously about money and wealth. The writer beautifully elaborated this matter through Willoughby. Out of greed for money, he married the daughter of a rich businessman and became unhappy in his later years. On the other hand, many parents want their daughters to marry rich men. However, Elinor and Marianne were exceptional. Both of them gave love and affection more priority, for which they became happy. Jane Austen did not say how much Marianne became happy, but there is no doubt that Marianne’s husband, Colonel Brandon, is a good person, and he truly loved Marianne with all her heart. 

The social reality Jane Austen depicted in her novel clearly reveals that women's condition in England was not so good. They were under immense pressure all the time. That is not the condition of present-day England. Now, women in England have more freedom, and at the same time, girls get an equal inheritance in their parents’ property. So, there is no doubt that the condition of England has changed a lot in 200 years.